The Second Task
by TheRavingFangirl
Summary: What would have happened in the second task if RON'S name had been put in the Goblet of Fire? Who would have been his hostage at the bottom of the lake? I think you all know...;3


"Urgh…what d'you want? I'm tryna sleep…" Ron groaned.

"C'mon, mate. You've gotta wake up, the second task is today, remember?" Harry said. Ron sat up.

"Oh…r-right," he yawned. "What's the second task again?" Harry shrugged.

"I dunno. I mean, it wasn't my name that came out of that goblet. I think you have to get something back from the merpeople in the lake. Do you remember that Bubble-Head Charm Hermione taught you?"

Ron nodded, dressed, and he and Harry went down the stairs to the common room. Ron looked around.

"Say, where _is _Hermione?" he asked.

"Maybe she's at the library," Harry answered. Ron frowned. He hadn't seen her since she'd gone off to McGonagall…

"Yeah…maybe…"

They headed through the castle down onto the grounds. Harry waved and went to join the spectators. Ron walked down to the edge of the lake. He scanned the stands for bushy brown hair, but Hermione was nowhere to be seen. Now genuinely worried, Ron waited for Bagman to announce the start of the task.

Bagman boomed, "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One…two…_three_!"

The whistle sounded shrilly, and Ron cast the Bubble-Head Charm, took off his shoes and socks, and dove into the lake.

The water was icy cold, and it made Ron's spine shiver. He went very numb and found it hard to swim. But he got used to it after a while and swam deeper. There were loads of weeds, and a portion of the lake bed that was nothing but mud. Ron couldn't see anything that he had lost-not that he had anything worth losing.

He swam on, searched the surrounding water. What could the merpeople have taken? Tiredness was beginning to form in his limbs; Ron shook it off and continued onward.

Then he saw something in the distance. Ron squinted. It looked like there were four people chained to the bottom of the lake. He blinked a few times before realizing that that was what the champions were trying to recover: the people that they would miss the most.

Ron put on a burst of speed. As he approached the four people, he saw who they were: Hermione, Cho Chang, and two others he couldn't recognize. One of them, he concluded, must be Fleur's sister; he could tell by her silvery-blonde hair. Ron grabbed Hermione around the middle and started to swim upward, but she was tied to the bottom with thick seaweed. Ron took out his wand and performed a Severing Charm on it. It split into two, freeing Hermione. Ron grabbed her again and swam towards the surface.

Great shouts and cheers met Ron as he emerged with Hermione. She opened her eyes.

"Ron?" she croaked. He grinned at her. She looked at him in shock. "But-I thought-I was-Krum's-" Ron rolled his eyes, too exhausted to speak. Hermione blushed. "Well, he did seem to like me…" They swam to the shore of the lake, where Madam Pomfrey ambushed them with blankets and potion that made steam come out of their ears.

Soon, Cedric came to the surface with Cho, then Krum with his hostage, and Fleur with her sister. Ron kept looking at his feet, then at Hermione, then back at his feet again as she caught his eye. This was interrupted by Bagman, who announced that Ron came in first place, Cedric in second, Krum in third, and Fleur in fourth. Gryffindor went wild at Ron's achievement, and Slytherin's hisses and boos barely came through. Exhausted, Ron was about to get up and go back to the common room when something stopped him. Hermione had put her hand on his, making his ears turn red.

"Ron," she said quietly, "would you really miss me if I had drowned at the bottom of that lake?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I would, Hermione!" he said. But the look in her eyes told him she had meant something different. Ron's whole face went red this time. "Well, I…yeah," Ron said weakly. Hermione smiled at him and intertwined her fingers with Ron's. He grinned back and they both walked back to Gryffindor tower together.


End file.
